Junko Toyosawa

<p>  In the present study, education on emergency responding after disasters was conducted at 2 elementary schools, in order to teach the students how to predict risks and how to respond in crises. The participants, 281 second graders, studied with multimedia teaching materials which included information about possible dangers when an earthquake occurs in their everyday life, such as on their way to school or while they were sleeping, and ways to protect themselves after disasters. Together with their guardians, they completed homework assignments that considered possible risks when disasters occur when they are on their way to school or in their sleeping area. Because of the young age of the participants, both numerical subjective ratings and free descriptions were evaluated. The results generally confirmed that the children had learned from this experience. The discussion deals with the importance of children learning not only possible dangers relating to disasters, but also ways to protect themselves, and with the importance of learning in cooperation with their guardians.</p>

This study examined the relationship between speed and accuracy in police calls for service, verbal behavior (listener, communicator), and communication structure (adjacency pairs, turn-taking). Forty participants were randomly assigned to either the role of reporter or police officer, and asked to communicate based on a scenario of snatching by using the mobile phone. The results showed that verbal behavior were positively correlated with accuracy and negatively correlated with speed. Communication structure were positively correlated with accuracy and not correlated with speed. However, adjacency pairs were positively related with speed accuracy. The way of intervention to facilitate forming adjacency pairs was discussed.

The present study examined, in the context of fear-appeal research, effects of disaster education for elementary school children on their affect and cognition, as well as on the children's guardians' disaster preparedness actions. Fifth and sixth graders (N=135) completed questionnaires just prior to disaster education, just after disaster education, and 3 months afterwards. At all administrations of the questionnaires, items dealt with fear of earthquakes, perceived susceptibility to threats, perceived severity of threats, and perceived response efficacy. In addition, just after the disaster education, questions were asked about perceived self-efficacy toward their guardians and the students' intention to talk about the content of the disaster education with their guardians. In the 3-month follow-up, questions were added about actual transmission of the content of the disaster education and their guardians' actual disaster preparedness actions. The results showed that just after the disaster education, the children's affect and cognition were heightened, but at the 3-month follow-up, their affect and cognition were found to have returned to the pre-training level. Furthermore, heightened fear and perceived self-efficacy heightened the children's intention to talk with their guardians, heightened intentions facilitated actual transmission, and facilitated transmission promoted the guardians' actual disaster preparedness actions.